Namya Joshi is a 16-year-old Indian tech prodigy from Ludhiana, Punjab, who has been selected to deliver a keynote address at Bett UK, bringing together more than 30,000 educators, innovators, and changemakers as one of the world’s biggest edtech conferences.
Joshi, who has helped thousands of students and teachers around the world learn through Minecraft, will lead two sessions at the edtech show which takes place at London’s ExCel Centre from 24-26 January 2024.
Namya will lead sessions on – why game-based learning holds the key to social-emotional development; and building engaging game-based lesson plans.
She said: “I am so excited to take part in Bett 2024, which for years has been helping drive meaningful change in education through technology.
“I can’t wait to connect with the global edtech community at the show, and exchange ideas on how video games can help children learn. I firmly believe that we all have knowledge to spread, and Bett is one of the most inspiring learning networks.”
Already acclaimed as “Top Tech Savvy Student In India” and a global teacher at the age of 16, Namya got hooked on Minecraft, realising that it can also be used as an education tool. Following her own #EachOneTeachTen principle she’s trained thousands of teachers and students worldwide on the power of Minecraft, makecode, Python and other ICT tools, using Skype, Teams, Zoom or Google meet.
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She has mentored and trained more than 15,000 teachers and students to create game-based lessons to be used in classrooms, and been a powerful advocate for girls in STEM. Joshi was named an official Minecraft Student Ambassador by Microsoft, attained top certifications from Adobe, and has also written a bestselling book, as well as given TED talks.
Namya was recently named a top 50 finalist for the 2023 Chegg.org Global Student Prize, which recognises the outstanding achievements of young changemakers around the world. In 2018, Namya won the National Minecraft Competition, and in 2021 she received the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar. She has also been nominated as both an SDGs For Children Ambassador and a TeachSDGs Ambassador.
Louisa Hunter, Bett Portfolio Director, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Namya Joshi to the Bett stage. At her young age, she has already displayed incredible creativity to change how students and teachers learn. Our aim each year is to provide a truly global meeting place for educators, changemakers, and the world’s leading edtech innovators to have inspiring exchanges and spark solutions to ensure students and schools everywhere get the most out of technology.
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“With technology constantly transforming the education landscape, it’s imperative that diverse groups of educators, innovators, and students come together to learn from each other and chart the best path forward. In particular this year, we look forward to introducing our enhanced Connect @ Bett platform, which will make it easier than ever for the right people to connect with each other at the show.”
*Info: Namya Joshi; Bett
